This year I have concentrated on clarifying some aspects of the Pearce family and the related Blanch family. I have also continued to try to find out more about ‘Tommy’ Randall, without success, and to clarify other Randall family matters.
I received several emails from new people who have found my web site. In December I joined the ‘Genes-Reunited’ web site www.genesreunited.co.uk , and this elicited several responses. Mostly these were not related to my family tree, but a few were related and I have added some more details to my database.
Jackie Robinson contacted me via Genes-Reunited about Joseph Peter Lutman of Shirrel Heath, whose son Frederick was her grandfather.
In July Sharon Davage emailed me. Her partner Gordon is a descendant of Katherine Faithfull born 1686 listed in ‘Tree W’ who married John Sait. Gordon is also a descendant of Sarah Jane Carter, whose sister Sophia Carter married John Faithfull in 1886. John was a brother of my great-grandfather George Faithfull.
In August Kelley Videbeck emailed me. She is a descendant of Thomas Fowler and Maria Lock, the grandparents of my great-great-grandmother Emily Fowler the mother of George Faithfull. She provided me with more information about the Fowler family.
In April 2003, Ken Money said he had previously been in contact with an elderly man named Arthur Blanch, who said his mother was Mary Jane Pearce, the daughter of Eliza Pearce. This ties in with Dorothea Pearce’s mention of an ‘Aunt Blanch’; when revisited in summer 2004 she confirmed that Aunt Blanch was the daughter of her great-aunt Polly, and also said that Aunt Blanch’s daughter Annie Blanch taught the piano to Margaret Faithfull. Margaret confirmed that she was taught by Annie Blanch for a few years when she was about 12 or 13, and knew she was related but not how.
I was previously confused about the identity of ‘Aunt Polly’; clearly her real name was Mary, but the 1851 census index listed Mary Ann Pearce b 1847 and Jane Pearce b 1849 living with my great-great-grandparents James Pearce and Eliza Money. I therefore assumed that Mary Ann was Polly, and Jane was a younger sister. However when I examined the 1851 census microfilm I found that Mary Ann was in fact the youngest sister (not the daughter) of James, and was living with him and his wife after the death of her mother. Moreover, Jane’s birth registration shows that her full name was Mary Jane, and she appears under this name in later censuses. Probably they just called her Jane while Mary Ann was living in the same house to avoid the confusion of two children both called Mary. Later, Mary Jane was called Polly which is a common diminutive of Mary.
I had previously tentatively correlated Jane with a Sarah Jane in the 1881 census, based on age and birth place. Clearly this was wrong, and I have deleted this erroneous info from my database.
So ‘Aunt Polly’ was in fact Mary Jane Pearce, the oldest sister of my great-grandmother Harriet. Mary Jane married Henry Grey in 1872, and their children were Henry, Helen, Ann Elizabeth, Sophia, Flora Maria, and Ernest Reginald.
I have now located and obtained certificates for the marriages of all four Gray sisters. Helen Gray married Robert Dunn, and Dorothea Pearce remembers ‘Aunt Nellie and Uncle Rob’ Dunn living in Portchester. Ann Elizabeth Gray married Andrew Edward Blanch, and so must be the mother of Arthur and Annie Blanch.
While researching the Pearce family, I found that the dates on the list supplied by Sheila Smith were inaccurate; in some cases they may be dates of baptism rather than of birth. However, I also discovered another Pearce sister who was not even on the list at all: Emma Pearce b 1852, who married William Moth.
June Cox contacted me via Genes-Reunited about Rose Moth born in the 1880’s in Camberley. I have confirmed that this is Rose born 1889 a daughter of William Moth and Emma Pearce. Rose was the grandmother of June’s husband Andrew Cox, so we are 3rd cousins.
From the 1861 census I discovered that George Pearce (born 1830) the brother of James Pearce married Jane Money, the sister of James’ wife Eliza Money. So this means that two Money sisters married Pearce brothers, and two more Money sisters married Durant brothers (David and George). In the next generation there is a Pearce-Durant cousin marriage.
In March Brian Foulger sent me a photo of ‘Anna’ Durant and her husband William Maynard – in my database she is Hannah, a daughter of David Durant and Sarah Money.
‘Diane’ contacted me via Genes-Reunited about her husband’s grandmother Ivy Ware, daughter of James Ware and granddaughter of David Ware and Amelia Durant. Amelia was a sister of David and George Durant.
In February I received emails from Joanne Silsbury, whose great-grandmother was Emily May Randall b.1895, a daughter of William John Randall and Sarah Milton Coombs. William was a cousin of my great-grandmother Elizabeth Randall. Jo sent me a photo of John and Mary Randall, the parents of Elizabeth Randall.
During the year I have researched two different men called John William Randall, the brother (born 1847/8) and son (born 1860) of Elizabeth Randall. [The latter was also called Tommy, and appears as Thomas Randall in the 1881 census.]
I obtained the marriage certificate of John William Randall (born 1847/8) the brother of Elizabeth Randall, who married Emily Scott (born 1856/7) in Blean (near Herne Bay, Kent) in 1880. I also obtained the birth certificate for their son John in Blean in 1883. I also found the death registration in Portsea in 1896 for Emily Randall born 1856/7, who I believe is the same person, and also a death registration in Portsea in 1893 for John Randall born 1847 who may also be Emily’s husband (there is no plausible person alive in the 1901 census). This would leave John born 1883 an orphan. The 1901 census lists John Randall (born Herne Bay in 1883) living in Portsea as the son of John William Randall (born 1860) who is the son of Elizabeth Randall, not the one who married Emily Scott. But the earlier 1891 census lists this John William living with two of his Lutman sisters, with no sign of a son or wife. I have searched the birth registrations and cannot find a second John Randall born in Blean in 1883. Therefore I believe that after the death of both his parents he lived with his cousin John William Randall and is wrongly listed as his son in 1901 as their ages were 17 and 41 respectively.
In June Marion Skiffington sent me some scanned photos of Houghton/Burton family.